Canon Frederick Scott

[paul guthrie]

He has been called the best loved man in the CEF. He has an excellent memoir The Great War As I Saw It. In the book he describes the sucessful search for the buried body if his son Captain Henry Hutton Scott killed the the October 21 attack on Regina Trench near Courcelette. I have just reread the book. Scott was in same battalion as Alexander McClintock. He is buried at Baupaume Post Cemetery, Albert along with their commanding officer American John Simon Lewis.

It brought back the shock and amazement I felt the first time I realized the man who assisted him was Alexander McClintock the man listed below my posts. He describes the incident in his book published many years before Scott's book which came long after Alex's death.

Both books are in print, Westlake has them.

I wrote my first Stand To! article about Alex, # 56 has it.

[182 CEF]

Canon Scott wrote a very interesting account of "his" war. I have the book myself. From some of the accounts written by Soldiers it sems that he was "above average" when it came to Padras.

Dean Owen

[videre]

It brought back the shock and amazement I felt the first time I realized the man who assisted him was Alexander McClintock the man listed below my posts. He describes the incident in his book published many years before Scott's book which came long after Alex's death.

Both books are in print, Westlake has them.

I wrote my first Stand To! article about Alex, # 56 has it.

Canon Scott is also mentioned in The Red Vineyard by Benedict Murdoch (another Canadian padre). Only passing mentions, including coming across Scott in an aid station after Scott was wounded in 1918. I'm not sure that the Murdoch book is in print anywhere, but you can come across used editions occasionally (I have one!).

Melissa

[everclay]

I just recently got his book.

I haven't read it yet but i'm looking forward to it.

[Michael Johnson]

Scott was also a poet. When I was young his poem "The Un-named Lake" was in the readers in grade school.

[videre]

Scott was also a poet. When I was young his poem "The Un-named Lake" was in the readers in grade school.

The University of Western Ontario has a site of Canadian poets and the text of Scott's poetry is online and freely available. The link is:

http://www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/c...ration/FGScott/

Aside from writing poetry, he also wrote a badly-received novel (Elton Hazelwood) when he was younger and a few hymns that were relatively well-known during his lifetime, although they aren't as common now. Some versions of Hymns Ancient and Modern contained his 'We Hail Thee Now O Jesu'. If you go through the poetry, there are a couple of other sets of lyrics for hymns that (I think) are all set to the same meter.

F.R. Scott, a well-known Canadian law critic and more modern poet, was one of Scott's sons.

Melissa

[E M Lockwood]

I realize I am answering a very old post, but I am just rereading Canon Scott's book and have an interesting story. I was in a second hand book store in Southern Ontario a couple of years ago and came across a first edition copy of Canon Scott's book of poetry "In the Battle Silences: Poems Written at the Front". This in itself is not extraordinary, however the book was inscribed by Canon Scott "To my dear old brave son W B Scott with love from F G Scott Albert, France Oct 17, 1916" and then goes on with a personal note about sending off his other son Harry to the front trenches that morning at 5 am. You will undoubtedly know that he never saw his son again as Harry was killed in action 4 days later.

It was quite a thrill to find such significant of this piece of history and I'm quite sure the bookstore had no idea of its importance. I contacted the Canadian War museum and, after checking its authenticity, they purchased the book for the Museum.

You can find it there if you're interested!

Cheers,

E M Lockwood

[peterhogg]

Hi,

Thank you for this post. There was a thread a few weeks back related to this and I had added a note about Canon Scott's discovery of his son's grave and body through a signet ring. I thought it was such a moving account. I appreciate this additional information. Scott's accounts frequently are quoted in the For King and Country series hosted by Norm Christie and often broadcasted on the History Channel. But this is a nice bit of additional information.

cheers

peter

[Borden Battery]

The book is also available on-line. Regards, Borden Battery

The Great War As I Saw It - by Frederick George Scott

A Canadian Great War classic. [book from Project Gutenberg ][CEF Study Group – Sept 2010]

http://www.archive.org/details/thegreatwarasisa19857gut